Best of 2019

Ok, time for my low effort summary of the best things in 2019.

 

Movies

I only saw 59 films this year, and I only though one of them was above average, which was Promare, the colourful sci-fi, fire-fighting, anime extravaganza

 

Music

I saw two really fantastic live shows this year, and both bands put out excellent albums: Bring Me The Horizon (at Victoria Park) and Ghost (at Wembley Area).

 

Sports Anime

My fave anime shows this year were Tsurune and Run with the Wind. But I also really liked two western comics adopting the same style: Fence, and Check Please

 

DC Rebirth

Catching up with Peter J Tomasi’s Superman and James Tynion IV’s Detective Comics from the start of DC Rebirth has been a treat.

 

Chip Zdarsky

Zdarsky’s work is currently the highlight at Marvel. Spider-Man Life Story and Marvel Two In One were my favourite things I read in TPB this year. Zdarsky also writes a very funny weekly news letter, which has been great.

 

Best of 2017

Here are some of my fave things in 2017:

 

Anime

• Yuri on Ice to start the year
• My Hero Academia to end the year (pictured)

Games

• Finishing Final Fantasy XV and playing Final Fantasy XII for the first time
• Finally playing Suikoden

Comics

• • Catching up with stuff from a few years ago: Harbinger Wars; Batman & Robin (N52)
  • Wayward keeping up with my 2017 anime aesthetic
  • Gwenpool being so much fun

Music

• You’re Not You Anymore, the new album by Counterparts
• Linkin Park, Live at Brixton Academy
• Madeon & Porter Robinson, Live at the Forum

Movies

• Seeing Interstellar in 70mm
• Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, and Saturday Church at LFF
• Thor Ragnarok being awesome
• Silence and The Beguiled being underrated

The Best of 2015

A little late this year, but here are my favourite media things of 2015.

UK Cinema Releases

Foxcatcher & Selma

These were the two Oscar contenders that stood out for me. Foxcatcher was tense, creepy, and excellently performed. Selma was a flawlessly directed, stirring epic of inequality and minor triumph.

The Boy Next Door

Bizzare Jenifer Lopez erotic thriller. How this film got made in 2015 I don’t know. It’s completely insane (at one point the romantic interest buys JLo a ‘first edition’ of the Illiad. What?). I was just pleased with its existence really, and pleased to indulge its trashy sensibilities.

Mommy

I’m a sucker for Xavier Dolan’s knitwear and existentialism. Mommy is one of his best to date, taking characters who in most realities should be unlikeable and turning them into a loveable leads with a believable dysfunctional family dynamic.

Mad Max: Fury Road & John Wick

Action cinema was back in 2015. And in both of these examples it was flawlessly taught and expertly executed. Mad Max gets extra points for new cinema icon Furiosa, but both films are a joy of simple storytelling and adrenaline.

The Last Five Years

My first experience with a Jason Robert Brown musical, and oh my god I loved it. Full of both optimism and melancholy, it deals with the highs and lows of a relationship as melodramatic opera.

Listen Up Philip

While I very much also enjoyed Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young and Mistress America, Alex Ross Perry took Baumbach-style cynical hipster snark to a whole new levels with Listen Up Philip.

Clouds of Sils Maria

The kind of film that sweeps you up and surrounds you with all kinds of feelings. At once both subtle and extravagent. Juliette Binoche is an ageing actress and Kristen Stewart her youthful, contemplative assistant, both actresses at the top of their game.

 Magic Mike XXL

A love letter to the joys of escapism. Sustained brilliance and constantly surprising. My film of the year. I have written more about MMXXL elsewhere on this blog.

 We Are Your Friends & Paper Towns

I saw these back to back. The first is pure romance – arguably flawed, but full of the joys of youthful love, music, and friendship. The second is throwaway young adult fiction, but its characters and scenarios stuck with me more than it’s critically acclaimed YA competitors (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and The Diary of a Teenage Girl)

Carol

Gorgeous 16mm photography. Perfect 1950s production design. A deep relationship portrayed elegantly by two of the finest leading actresses around. Superb.

 

Home Viewing

TV

On TV, Netflix have been knocking it out of the park with Daredevil and Jessica Jones – both are wonderfully realised comicbook adaptations. Also on TV,  the constantly brilliant, subsersive sitcom, Broad City has become my favourite comedy show in a long time,

Masters of Cinema

I’ve really engaged with the Masters of Cinema blu-ray line this year, who put out fantastic transfers of fantastic films. I was mightily impressed by Man of the West (1958), Faust (1926), Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), and Lifeboat (1944).

The Epic of Everest

Perhaps the finest film I watched all year though was seen on iPlayer. The Epic of Everest (1924) offers a beautifully haunting look into the lost world of early 20th century adventure and exploration.

 

Music

I haven’t attended much live music this year. The most notable though would be The Decemberists at Brixton Academy, who put on a fantastic evening of wistful-hipster-folk-rock.

In terms of music releases, Being as an Ocean, August Burns Red, and While She Sleeps all put out top tier metal/hardcore albums, As It Is brought back emo, and I’ve been listening to a fair amount of alt-electro-pop (much of which is 80s influenced) – ODESZA, CHVRCHES, Dive In, Paperwhite, and Madeon stand out.

Convenient playlist of my fave songs of 2015.

 

Comics and Books

This year I once again read a load of Marvel and Image comics.

Special mention for Image goes to Greg Rucka and Michael Lark for introducing a great new female lead and detailed universe in Lazarus, the gorgeous painted art and tense sci-fi storytelling of Descender by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen, and the the ongoing brilliance that is Saga.

As for Marvel, my favourites of the year go to Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey’s superb collab on Moon Knight, the pure joy of Ryan North and Erica Henderson’s Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, and the first three flawless issues of Cyclops, written by Greg Rucka with stunning artwork by Russel Daugterman.

Outside of comics, My Lunches with Orson by Henry Jaglom / Peter Biskind and Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt scratched my movie itch, while Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey introduced me to an exciting new sci-fi universe via a perfectly paced action romp.

My favourite things of 2014

It’s that time of the year when I start making lists. Here is some of the pop culture I’ve enjoyed in 2014.

Movies

2014 started wonderfully for film with Only Lovers Left Alive, Her and Inside LLewyn Davis remaining three of my favourite flicks throughout the year.

However, there were two films that massively stood out for me. Those are Richard Linklater’s wonderfully absorbing indie marvel Boyhood, and Hayao Miyazaki absolutely beautiful melancholy animation, The Wind Rises. Both, I feel, have become instant classics.

Meanwhile, Marvel once again proved they’re the studio that knows how to do contemporary blockbusters with Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. Their main challenger for action movie of the year was the exciting and satisfying Tom Cruise sci-fi film Edge of Tomorrow.

January / February’s Oscar contenders were also solid this year, particularly Dallas Buyers Club and 12 Years A Slave.

Music

This is the year in which I turned Spotify full time, and the number of artists I’ve listened to as a result is both large and varied.

There were two albums that I played more than any other though: Being As An Ocean‘s Dear G-D, an existential post-hardcore riff on faith, fate and relationships, and Body Clocks by Climates, and up and coming British metal/hardcore band with a killer opening track ‘Leaves of Legacy‘.

In terms of pop music, the year really revolved around Chvrches’ electro-indie The Bones of What You Believe and adorable YouTube twink Troye Sivan‘s debut EP TRXYE for me.

I saw some great gigs too, the pinnacle of which was probably country/folk band Old Crow Medicine Show from Nashville, Tennessee putting on one hell of a show in Camden’s beautiful Roundhouse.

Comics

I’m pretty sure my comics collection has tripled in the last year.

My favourite moment was reading the whole of Young Avengers Volume 3: Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space in one sitting when it released in April (I love those characters so much, and Gillen/McKelvie are a great creative team). And then there were those few months where I got really obsessed with Jonathan Hickman’s entire Fantastic Four run from a few years back.

Image were consistently great in 2014, with Saga still going strong, plus Deadly Class and East of West particular favourites.

Django Unchained (2012) – review

Quentin Tarantino has been making films for over 20 years now and each one has followed in the footsteps of the title of his second. Tarantino continually makes pulp fiction, and does it brilliantly.

Like his WWII film, matial arts epic, and sleezy B-movie, Django Unchained tackles a pulp genre – the western – and puts a knowing, postmodern spin on it.

Django is exactly everything I wanted from a new Tarantino movie. It’s an absolute blast to watch: Funny, exciting, full of great characters and bloody cartoon violence. But it also manages to tackle ‘issues’; raising the horrors of slavery but not forcing them at you, which gives it a bit of added depth.

Django Unchained had me from the title sequence, which mentioned an ‘original song by Ennio Morricone’ – the Good the Bad and the Ugly composer who is somewhat a hero of mine. When that song did crop up it didn’t disappoint, but like all Tarantino movies the whole soundtrack is great. Musically Django goes for a combination of spaghetti western, 70s funk and modern hip hop. And it’s always used in exactly the right places.

Viewed at: Cineworld, Wood Green

Les Miserables (2012) – review

The world as a whole needs more big screen musicals. Seriously, there’s nothing like the joy of a big screen production that’s heavy on the melodrama and lyrics. But in recent times they’ve been lacking. Has it really been five years since Sweeney Todd? And was I really the only person who enjoyed Nine? (itself released three years ago now).

The new adaptation of long running West End show Les Miserables is pretty awesome and pretty damn epic; the kind of epic usually reserved for Batman sequels and Alien prequels. Yes, the plot gets silly at times and it can feel a little too long, but Les Miserables carries itself with all the trappings of musical bravado which I enjoy.

Kings Speech director Tom Hopper makes some interesting decisions and for the most part they pay off. For instance, the much publicised decision to record live vocals works well in the medium and successfully ups the emotional register. Here movie stars (Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway) fill the lead roles and act specifically for the movies: close-up and raw, with songs screamed or cried through rather than perfect diction and West End theatrics.

Recording this way means long takes, and often getting up close and personal with a Steadicam tracking the actors’ neatly framed head and shoulders. It can be disorientating at first, particularly when these close ups are interspersed with long shots framed at a 30 to 45 degree tilt (which happens frequently). But when it pays off it really works – Anne Hathaway’s distraught rendition of I Dreamed A Dream is one of my favorite things I’ve seen on film (or 4k digital, as it is at The O2) for quite a while. She gives an absolutely mesmerizing performance for the short duration she’s on screen and has subsequently acquired the status of ‘my current favorite actress’.

Viewed at: Sky Superscreen, The O2

Hors Satan (2011) – review

The ICA is fast becoming one of my favourite places on London to see films: Reasonable prices, a hip exciting atmosphere at the bar, and awesome arty films which can be hard to find elsewhere.

Shuffling into the cosy Screen 2 I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hors Satan. And that’s honestly the best way to see it as expectations about what is happening and about to happen will continually shift throughout the film.

Essentially its about a loner wandering around the northern French countryside and the relationship he forms with a farmer’s abused daughter. But once you adjust to the slow rhythms of that story (and trust me, it starts slow, but stick with it) you’ll find something start to emerge which is all the more sinister, and with dark hints of the supernatural.

Hors Satan is beautifully shot, very intriguing, and ultimately (for me) pretty damn satisfying. Given its slow pace, muddy plotting and dark turns, fans of Kill List would do well to seek it out.

Viewed at: The ICA

Roundup: Life of Pi and Pitch Perfect

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged properly. Here are two films I saw over the holidays which deserved a few words:

Life of Pi – I’m aware my opinion is in the minority here, but i really saw very little to like in Life of Pi. The sentimental narration is entirely redundant, and I found the highly praised CGI hollow. Initial admiration for the last minute carpet-pull (which makes a fairly interesting point about religion but plays it out like a facetious ‘twist’) turned to disappointment in hindsight that the themes hadn’t been integrated properly throughout. It was too little too late and actually came across as rather conceited.

Pitch Perfect – Despite being generic as hell (acapella group must sing fashionable songs against their tradition to stand a chance of winning competition) Pitch Perfect is pretty enjoyable. It’s consistently funny, but occasionally lacking in the musical department (though the riff-off is definitely amazing). The portrayal of college-age affectation would sit perfectly in a double bill alongside last year’s Damsels in Distress.

Celluloid is dead. Long live celluloid.

Can we talk about projection for a minute? You see I recently saw The Master (it’s ace by the way) projected in 70mm and since then I have become increasingly convinced that the format represents the future of Hollywood.

You’ve probably realised by now that the existence of celluloid film as a physical format is in serious danger of extinction. You’ve probably even seen articles saying 35mm projection will be entirely replaced by digital in 2015 or some such arbitrary year. And to be honest, there’s a lot to like about the rise of digital. It’s cheap, which means distributors can get less mainstream stuff out there at minimum financial risk (meaning more variety for viewers), and the simpler projection makes things easier for understaffed cinemas. Remember the last few years of celluloid projection where you would see an out of focus film in the wrong aspect ratio with unreliable sound? That’s now (mostly) a thing of the past.

But I and many others will miss 35mm. There’s warmth to it; texture, grain and scratches which prove its analogue existence and fragility; and for my money it conveys depth of field much better than a ‘flat’ digital image does. There’s a reason cineastes like myself flocked to the ICA recently to catch the only subtitled 35mm print of Tabu that was made. It felt like an event. A nostalgic rarity from the past.

And the same event status has now been given to The Master. Released exclusively in the UK at the Odeon West End for two weeks, it’s showing not only on film… but on 70mm film. Now this is special. The Odeon West End even had a huge 70mm projector installed specifically for the purpose. Previously 70mm has been reserved for huge visual epics like Lawrence of Arabia or 2001: A Space Odyssey, not arty Scientology parables.

And you know what? It’s bloody fantastic. 70mm is not only much higher definition that the highest definition digital around, but it also contains the endearing qualities of analogue projection. You want super clear crisp detail? Got it. You want background depth. Got it. Grain and texture? Yep.

Just for point of comparison, a 4k digital projector is roughly equivalent to the fidelity of 35mm film, but most digital cinema screens currently run a 2k projector. 70mm is doubling that 35mm (or 4k format) again… so you can see the gap between the formats is quite wide.

And that’s why I think 70mm is the future of Hollwyood. It’s like with music, where the majority of the market consists of compressed mp3s but a sizeable minority embrace the higher fidelity and analogue charm of vinyl. There’s room for two, and the film industry can – and should – offer both options.

As cinemas adopt digital projection and high definition content becomes more commonplace in homes, the two are beginning to merge. I think we’re getting closer and closer to a point where new films are released on multiple formats (download, blu-ray, and cinema) simultaneously: the two-tier release window is now dated and same day releases could reduce piracy.

When that happens cinema is going to be catering to a different crowd, one that’s after best experience possible and willing to pay a price for it. Comfortable seating and a licensed bar will go some way to appeasing them, but the film on screen needs to be looking its absolute best and be providing audiences with something they can’t get at home. 70mm can do that.

So come on Hollywood, how about taking Paul Thomas Anderson and the Weinstein’s lead and start shooting and distributing more films on 70mm? The future will very appreciative.

Skyfall (2012) – review

Skyfall is the most ‘Bond’ of Daniel Craig’s three efforts. Gone are the rookie vulnerabilities of Casino Royale and its continuation Quantum of Solace, and re-instated is the assured old hand of espionage. Making its way towards a conclusion that establishes a new continuity of sorts, but bound in the old, Skyfall attempts to reset the franchise at a position where Daniel Craig can directly carry on from Sean Connery – Aston Martin DB5, Scottish Highlands and all – with all the flippancy of Moore and Brosnan forgotten.

The reinvigoration of Q as a youthful tech acts to show both how much and how little has changed in this reimagining of the 50-year-old series. By supplying Bond with a gadget that’s obviously going to come handy later yet undercutting it with a dismissal of exploding pens, Ben Wishaw’s Q informs us that nostalgia can (and will) be acted upon here, but only within reason. Nostalgia indeed runs throughout the film, and references to the past work in much the same way that they did in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek reboot – with a sly wink.

Javier Bardem delights as deliciously theatrical villain Silva. His opening scene is one of the best in the history of Bond villains: a conversation with Bond that plays out like a histrionic re-hash of The Dark Knight’s Batman-Joker centrepiece. His monologue, full of twisted logic and amusing inflections is immediately satisfying.

Sam Mendes’ effort as Bond director in fact channels Christopher Nolan’s films at times; Iconography (crumbling abandoned island, oriental casino, Shanghai cityscapes) and themes (returning because the world needs him, struggling through physical and mental pain, an enemy who is the flip side of himself) are familiar from The Dark Knight, Inception, and The Dark Knight Rises. But Skyfall lacks the depth of Nolan’s usually thoughtful characterisation and allegory. All great genre films have the potential to tell an interesting or relevant story within their confines, but Skyfall doesn’t really reach beyond the surface.

There are standout moments though, and that surface is certainly a shiny one. Bardem’s first couple of scenes are very memorable, an opening motorcycle chase is exhilarating, and a beautifully choreographed fist fight between Bond and an assassin – shot in silhouette against a luminous neon Shanghai backdrop – is simply superb. Coen brothers alumni and Mendes’ recurring cinematographer Roger Deakins makes as big a contribution as any of the cast. His cinematography is exciting throughout, particularly when it comes to his understanding of lighting and colour. Meanwhile Thomas Newman’s score is fresh, integrating chord progressions from the famous theme where necessary but avoiding the bombast of David Arnold’s previous Bond efforts.

So, while Skyfall isn’t a masterpiece there’s still plenty to like.